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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MARCH 1, 2020
BY ROSE ADAMS
Angry animal lovers gathered
outside a Bensonhurst pet store
on Feb. 22 to protest the shop’s allegedly
substandard conditions
— which activists claim includes
selling customers sick and dying
dogs.
“This store sold us, and hundreds
of others, a puppy that was
sick with kennel cough and had a
congenital eye defect,” said Elena
Okhotnikova, an executive at the
non-profi t American Alliance for
Protection of Animals Inc. “We
had to surgically remove his right
eye because it was a dead eye.”
The manager of Puppy Boutique,
located on 80th Street between
16th and 17th avenues, said
that the store sells six breeds from
67 licensed breeders, and more
than 250,000 canines have passed
through the shop in their 25 years
— with only a fraction of them having
health problems.
However, Okhotnikova claims
that just because a breeder is licensed
by the state doesn’t mean
that it abides by ethical practices,
and said that customers reported
purchasing dogs suffering
illnesses typically contracted in
puppy mills.
“As long as people continue
buying puppies from pet stores,
they are promoting puppy mills
and thus promoting animal cruelty,”
she said.
During the protest, several bereaved
dog owners spoke about
their bad experiences with the
puppy store, and held signs that
read “Puppy Boutique = Puppy
Mill” and “Save the pups, Close
them up!”
One unhappy customer said
that the store sold her an 8-weekold
Shih Tzu suffering from heartworms
— a parasite transmitted
through mosquito bites that cause
lung and heart disease — landing
the dog in the hospital for fi ve days
and leaving her with a $5,000 medical
bill.
“The vets were saying that had
it gone longer he would’ve died,”
said Karina Sanchez, who bought
her dog, Kush, in late January.
Sanchez said she was appalled
by the conditions and care that
Puppy Boutique provided the dog,
saying she found the pooch surrounded
by feces and discovered
staff feeding her Gatorade and
Frosted Flakes!
“I noticed there was something
weird in their drink,” she said. “I
asked the employee and he said,
‘Oh, we give puppies Gatorade because
it gives them electrolytes.”
A manager at the store, who
would only give his name as Philip,
admitted to feeding the dogs sugary
foods, saying the diet was
cleared by the city’s Department
of Health, which inspects the store
regularly.
“We only got a ticket once in
25 years, and it was for a vacuum
problem,” Philip said.
Protesters held signs outside the Puppy Boutique.
Brooklyn Public Library offering
free college-level courses
Pakistani immigrant Nadia Batool Bokhari, pictured here giving a lecture at
Prospect Park, will return for University Open Air’s second semester to provide
a lesson on the 2020 Census. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Public Library
BY COLIN MIXSON
An international cadre of researchers
and academics are
partnering with Brooklyn Public
Library to offer more than 25
college-level courses to curious
Brooklynites free of charge.
The instructors — who hail
from countries including Pakistan,
India, Cameroon, Nepal,
Tunisia, and China, to name a
few — were regarded as experts
in their chosen fi elds back home,
but due to professional and bureaucratic
challenges, many
were forced to adopt new, often
more menial professions upon
migrating to the United States,
according to the program’s head.
“It’s the usual New York story,
where you get into a cab and it
turns out your driver is a philosopher
from Russia,” said Jakab
Orsós, vice president of arts and
culture at the library, whose
team produces the lecture series.
To take advantage of the city’s
wealth of untapped expertise, the
library system created University
Open Air, a lecture series
that offers migrant academics
a competitive wage in exchange
for brisk, one-hour lessons that
introduce students to a wide variety
of compelling disciplines, according
to Orsós.
Among the many courses on
offer include lectures on childhood
development, urban planning,
photography, futurism,
meditation, Chinese tea ceremonies,
and Tang Dynasty poetry,
along with a very topical lesson
on the impact of the 2020 census.
University Open Air’s current
semester, which kicked off
on Feb. 24 and continues through
March 7, follows the program’s
debut last summer, when the library
system partnered with the
Prospect Park Alliance to host
three weeks of outdoor classes
in Brooklyn’s Backyard, which
attracted hundreds of students
to lessons accompanied by free
coffee, a mobile library, and even
live music.
The classes are brief and introductory
by nature, but the
professors are liberal in handing
out their contact information
and will provide a reading list for
students keen to continue their
education, Orsós said.
A dog gone shame
Animal lovers protest pet store for allegedly selling sick dogs
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Study abroad
An activist protests the store with her furry friend
Photos by Nico Z Rogan